RULING TO IMPACT FUTURE OF CANADA'S SPORTS CABLE LANDSCAPE

     Canadian applicants for specialty cable channels will learn
September 3 if they will receive licenses from the Canadian
Radio-TV and Telecom Commission.  The sports "wager with the
highest stakes" is CTV's bid for a second sports channel, to be
called S3, according to William Houston of the Toronto GLOBE &
MAIL.  TSN, the country's only sports cable service, says the CTV
application "should be denied because the Canadian market cannot
support two sports services."  But at the same time, TSN is
seeking its own second sports channel, TSN Plus, which would
transmit two signals, West and East.  Houston notes rumors the
CRTC "may turn down both" the CTV and TSN applications, a ruling
that would, in effect be a victory for TSN to continue in an
"exclusive market."  CTV is arguing S3 would provide sports
broadcasting jobs, while a rejection would leave more Canadian
viewers to seek sports programming through U.S.-based satellite
systems (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 8/22).